This copy is for your personal non-commercial use only. To order presentation-ready copies of Toronto Star content for distribution to colleagues, clients or customers, or inquire about permissions/licensing, please go to: www.TorontoStarReprints.com

Maple Leafs’ Nazem Kadri vows to be better in Game 2: Cox

BOSTON—Very few excel at the controlled chaos that is NHL playoff hockey on their first try.

So Nazem Kadri can definitely include himself in the majority on this one.

Nazem Kadri wasn't happy with his performance in Game 1 against the Bruins. "I know I can play a lot better than that,” said the young Leaf centre. (Steve Russell / Toronto Star)

“It wasn’t very good,” admitted the Maple Leafs centre on Friday when asked to evaluate his first Stanley Cup playoff game two days earlier.

“I wasn’t very happy with myself. I know I can play a lot better than that.”

Not since he was the target of a Don Cherry kiss has Kadri played his best hockey this season, and his efforts in Game 1 against the Boston Bruins on Wednesday were a step down even from that.

Article Continued Below

He looked uncertain, maybe even confused. Against a veteran, battle-hardened Bruins team, Kadri looked like a junior again. Or a first-year Marlie, a player not quite ready for the bigs.

So on Friday, the second of two days of self-flagellation by the Leafs for their play in the opener, Kadri was definitely among those blaming himself as head coach Randy Carlyle contemplated a host of lineup changes that could bring as many as five different faces to the Toronto lineup for Game 2 on Saturday.

Either Jake Gardiner or Ryan O’Byrne will draw in for the injured Mike Kostka on the back end, and both might even see action if Carlyle chooses to go with seven defencemen. If he doesn’t, based on Friday’s practice in which Gardiner was manning the point on the second power play unit, it seems he’s a likely lineup addition.

Up front, Carlyle might choose to sit both of his enforcers, Colton Orr and Frazer McLaren. He’s got Matt Frattin, Ryan Hamilton and Joe Colborne to choose from, with Hamilton, the Marlies captain, seeming to be the likeliest to get the nod for Game 2.

Heck, if Ben Scrivens can’t, for some reason, make a flight back to Boston after attending a family funeral, third-stringer Drew MacIntyre might even be needed as a backup.

All those changes, or some of them, won’t make much of a difference if the Leafs marquee names — of which Kadri is now one — don’t get going.

“I just had a couple of turnovers, down low I wasn’t moving my feet as well as I can, wasn’t able to find guys on the move,” was Kadri’s self-analysis. “It’s a game that I love to play. Now I’ve got to bring that same heart and passion that I always bring, that competitive nature, to the next game. I think we all understand that we didn’t play our best games.

Article Continued Below

“This is how we’re going to be judged. On our response and on our rebound.”

The obstacles for Kadri are significant. Not only is he still learning, and not only was Wednesday his first playoff game, and not only are the Bruins a Stanley Cup-quality team, but among the centres he has to face — Patrice Bergeron, David Krejci, Chris Kelly and Gregory Campbell — there isn’t a soft touch or a pivot weak in his own end.

Moreover, Kadri is officially locked in nasty slump. Along with a minus-5 rating, he has just one goal and four assists in his last 12 games, dreadful compared to the 17 goals and 22 assists he managed in his opening 37 games.

“It’s the same game. Just a little more pace and a little more meaning,” he said, describing the difference between the regular season and what he’s seen of the playoffs.

“In the regular season maybe things open up a little more. In the playoffs, you learn to wait for your chances and when that chance comes, to put it in the back of the net.”

Judging by his linemates on Friday, Hamilton and Leo Komarov, it seems the Leaf coaching staff is trying to lower the expectations on Kadri, putting him on a unit that will be judged as successful if it can simply not get caught on the ice for a goal against.

Kadri, however, isn’t buying into any sense that he can shift to a more peripheral role.

“I embrace the expectations. I accept the challenge,” he said. “I want to be able to come through for this team. I want the pressure and to be able to score those big goals.”

So do you judge him as a 22-year-old finding his way in the toughest hockey tournament in the world, or by his standards?

He may not be quite ready for the latter, but he doesn’t really want any part of the former.

So we’ll go by what he says. He’s a playoff virgin no more. Time to produce.

More from The Star & Partners

LOADING

Copyright owned or licensed by Toronto Star Newspapers Limited. All rights reserved. Republication or distribution of this content is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Toronto Star Newspapers Limited and/or its licensors. To order copies of Toronto Star articles, please go to: www.TorontoStarReprints.com